Netapp, Inc.

Network Appliance, Inc.

Brian M Hackworth

Nagender Somavarapu

Pradeep Kumar Kalra

Steven R Klinkner

Steven D Yee

Rod Bagg

Michael Eric Powers

Joseph A Thomson

Richard L Ehrhart

James M Korntved

Diptish Datta

Steven C Miller

Rodney A Dekoning

Konstantinos Roussos

Shankar Balasubramanian

Gaurav Makkar

Stephen William Daniel

Brian J Pawlowski

Joseph P CaraDonna

Benjamin Swartzlander

Sahn Lam

Peter Logan Smoot

Jing Shi

Hemanth Pannem

K Uday Kishore

Timothy Eric Nicholson

Raja Shekar

Barry Schwartz

Steve Klinkner

Jeffrey Alan Fultz

Daniel Nghia Truong

Swami Ramany

Mrinmoy Majumdar

Michael S Riley

Valentin M Bercovici

Lokesh Shah

Eric Peter Dutko

Ramanthan Ps

A system management tool provides a comprehensive summary of operational information of a storage system. For example, the system management tool presents a digital dashboard ('dashboard') in a graphical user interface. The system management tool also presents, via the dashboard, views that correspond to different dimensions of the storage system. In response to expansion of a selected view, the system management tool can automatically collapse the other views into a non-expanded views or move the other views to visible areas remaining after expansion of the selected view. Thus, all of the views remain continuously visible via the dashboard despite the modification to the appearance of the selected view.

Providing continuous context for operational information of a storage system

A system and method for planning and configuring the components of a modular computing system is provided. In some embodiments, the method for planning an implementation of a modular computing system comprises presenting a user interface at a display device, the user interface including a plurality of user-selectable objects, each of the user-selectable objects representing a component of the modular computing system. A user selection is received via a user input device. The user selection is from among the user-selectable objects and specifies one of an enclosure, an existing component, and a future component of the modular computing system. A representation of the specified one of an enclosure, an existing component, and a future component is displayed at a display device. The user selection is verified with respect to an implementation guideline. An indicator of whether the user selection meets the implementation guideline is displayed at the display device.

System and method for planning an upgrade of a modular computing system

Network storage system configuration via a network is disclosed. A network address assignment component is configured to listen for network discovery requests over the network. Responsive to receiving a network discovery request from a network storage system, one or more candidate network addresses are (e.g., randomly) generated until an available candidate network address is generated. For example, if a first candidate network address is determined as available (e.g., not used by another device within the network), then the first candidate network address is offered and/or assigned to the network storage system as an initial configuration network address that may be used to provide configuration access to the network storage system, otherwise a second candidate network address is generated and/or evaluated for availability. As such, configuration access may be provided over the network to the network storage system regardless of whether the network comprises an IP address assigning (e.g., DHCP) server.

Network address assignment with duplication detection

The present invention includes an apparatus connected to a processing system including a data collector to gather and store data regarding operation of the processing system, a device relationship manager to send data regarding the operation of the processing system to a remote administrative console, and a security policy manager to control the sending of data regarding the operation of the processing system by the device relationship manager to the remote administrative console based on a security policy.

Method and apparatus for management and troubleshooting of a processing system

A namespace and storage management (NSM) application includes an infrastructure configured to enable efficient management of resources in a storage system environment. The NSM application executes on a NSM console and interacts with an NSM server to integrate namespace management and storage management in the storage system environment. The NSM server, in turn, interacts with one or more remote agents installed on host machines in the environment to convey application programming interface (API) function calls that enable remote management of the resources.

Namespace and storage management application infrastructure for use in management of resources in a storage system environment

A system and method integrates namespace management and storage management in a storage system environment. According to the invention, an integrated management framework provides an underlying infrastructure that supports various heterogenous storage access protocols within a single, logical namespace service. The logical namespace service is based on extensions to underlying storage management processes that cooperate to create the integrated management framework. Notably, these extensions are embodied as novel library functionality.

System and method for integrating namespace management and storage management in a storage system environment

A server system allows an administrator to visualize storage space utilization of a storage system. In one implementation, the server system monitors the amount of used storage space in a storage system with respect to different types of usage. The server system generates a Graphical User Interface comprising a graphical chart displaying the amount of used storage space relating to a period of time. The graphical chart includes a breakdown of the different types of usage over the period of time. In another implementation, the server system receives a user input applied on the graphical chart, adjusts an allocation of storage space in the storage system in response to the user input, and updates the graphical chart to reflect the adjusted allocation of the storage space. In yet another implementation, the server system receives a selection of one or more snapshots to be deleted, determines one or more common files to the selected snapshots, computes a potential amount of reclaimed storage space based on the selection and the one or more common files to the selected snapshots, and to update the graphical chart in response to the selection without actually deleting the selected snapshots.

Method for visualizing space utilization in storage containers

A method and an apparatus to provide chargeback data for data sets are presented. In one embodiment, the method includes allowing an administrator of a data storage system to define a data set having a plurality of storage objects and to associate the data set with a data management policy and an owner. The method includes generating a report allocating usage for billing (for example) for an owner of a data set by tracking the storage elements used to implement the defined data set according to the data management policy. The method may further include using a storage manager to manage and track the data set as a single unit according to the data management policy.

Chargeback in a data storage system using data sets

A system and method enables one or more storage volumes and associated devices on one or more storage appliances (filers) to be combined or consolidated into arbitrary groups so that statistical information related to performance, operational status and other usage-based parameters can be made available to interested parties associated with the group. The volumes can drawn from different storage appliances and grouped so as to allow administration and access by a common group of administrators or users. The statistical information can be compared to threshold values to generate events. The events can be e-mailed or otherwise transmitted to interested parties. The statistical information can also be organized and displayed in a variety of formats as a web page on a graphical user interface that resides on a management station and/or client display of an interested party.

System and method for consolidated reporting of characteristics for a group of file systems

A monitoring server remotely communicates with a storage server in order to monitor utilization of storage space of a write out-of-place file system on the storage server, the file system including a persistent point-in-time image (PPI) of its active file system, the PPI including at least part of the active file system, but does not duplicate said part of the active file system.

Method and system of automatically monitoring a storage server

A rule-based performance analysis tool and a method analyze metrics from a network storage system and generate recommendations for resolving actual or anticipated performance problems. The tool and method collect system metrics from one or more sources, including a storage appliance and optional user-reported comments and/or information about proposed changes to the network storage system. A rule base is applied against the collected metrics and user inputs. Each rule is associated with one or more metrics and has one or more threshold values. A rule can analyze a rate of change of a metric. For each triggered rule, the tool provides an output that includes an explanation of the rule, a suggested action to alleviate or avoid the problem that triggered the rule and, optionally, a priority level. The outputs are presented in a hierarchical display.

Rule-based performance analysis of storage appliances

A system and method enables one or more directories or qtrees on one or more volumes associated with one or more storage appliances (filers) to be combined or consolidated into arbitrary groups so that statistical information related to performance, operational status and other usage-based parameters can be made available to interested parties associated with the group. The directories can draw from different volumes and grouped so as to allow administration and access by a common group of administrators or users. The statistical information can be compared to threshold values to generate events. The events can be e-mailed or otherwise transmitted to interested parties. The statistical information can also be organized and displayed in a variety of formats as a web page on a graphical user interface that resides on a management station and/or client display of an interested party.

System and method for consolidated reporting of characteristics for a group of directories

In a method and system for monitoring storage resources, storage containers are monitored to identify their individual normal usage patterns over time. Based on a storage container's normal usage pattern, limits may be established for determining whether its rate of change over a predetermined amount of time (i.e., usage change rate) is normal or abnormal based on a mean and a standard deviation of historical usage rate values. The limits are periodically updated to ensure that the limits remain indicative of the storage container's current usage pattern, as usage patterns may vary over the life of a storage container.

Monitoring usage rate patterns in storage resources

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Brian M Hackworth